On NadaDadaism

[sorg]

Power corrupts, community collapses.
Equality is cooperation. Opportunity is earned.

Let's embrace powerlessness, let's engage community. Let's earn opportunity, with equality. Let's build a powerless commune of opportunistic equals.

There's been an organic development of the event/possee/movement that we're calling NadaDada Motel. In 2007, the first year, it was named Dada Motel by El Jefe. He brought a group of six artists together to put the wheels in motion and that is what we did and that is why his title is the Noble Instigator.

For our purposes, the event's name worked perfectly. It said art, it said 'outside' and it said motel.

From Jefe's lead, many of us decided we shouldn't hold on to that name after that first year because that movement had already happened and no coat tails would be ridden by us. We share an attitude that the Dadaists had had and that is of an outsider stance–we wanted to stir some shit!

We agreed that we wanted to be outside of the state funded art establishment. We had to be our own animal. We considered changing the name each year. We decided that decisions would be made at meetings. If you were there, you would decide on things voted upon.

Slowly developing was the message that every artist involved needed to take some ownership. If they wanted it, they needed to do it themselves.

My favorite phrase became "don't should on me". Don't tell me we should this, we should that. If you think so, do it yourself. It became a subtle push all the time to get participants to take it upon themselves. I'm not getting paid to do this and no one else is. We are not the Arts Council, we are not Artown, we are not funded by anyone. We are not being held accountable for any money that the tax payers are dishing our way. We don't have to beg, we are not a charity.

The next year we had a new name after it was said of my decision to curate our 'best of' Vegas show myself, "that's not Dada, that's NadaDada. Nada Motel. That museum exhibition, to some, was counter to what we, as a group, were trying to establish. We've established a do-it-yourself, take-it-upon-yourself way of putting on an art exhibition and some thought I was taking the reins upon myself. I was.

I took it upon myself to promote artists in a museum setting. This was to be my contribution to our project's promotion. I wanted to present the most accomplished art from participants to be shown in a clean and clear presentation. I was interested in showing my broad idea of quality. The museum exhibition is my own project. The Reno event is everyone's. The art exhibited in Reno motel rooms is in no way curated.

Artistically, we believe in no over-arching theme or goal. We live in the post-modern era–some would call it the post-post modern era, but who's counting? Anyway, artists are asked to adhere to no particular look or philosophy... all they've gotta do is rent a room, open their door to the public and that's the concept. One room looks spic & span like a gallery, the next looks like a stoner's basement. It's the juxtaposed genres that do it. It's the conflicting tastes that do it. It's the shady motel rooms that do it. It's an event like this being held in RENO that does it.

Similar to the Dadaist of the early 20th century, we see absurdity in the way things are being done in the artworld. Our goal is to raise awareness to the fact that the trickle down way of presenting art, from the top down, is outdated. It's not art, it's pressure, it's socialism, it's conformity, It's charity. It's not organic and it's just plain UNTRUE. Artists are an independent kind of creature and historically, we lead.

Starving artist? I, for one, am making myself focal, and I'm making myself in to something that people want. I'm hoping to get fed in the process and sometimes I am. I'm riding this wave and I'm making waves. NadaDada Motel says you are invited to do the same.